The president of Georgia's breakaway, Russian-backed Abkhazia region summoned his security council on November 16 after the so-called prime minister of the rebel province was beaten up by attackers in the center of its main city.

The de facto government's interior minister said two men used a car to block Beslan Butba's Mercedes on a Sukhumi street on November 15 and then attacked him.

Butba was traveling with his wife and children and without bodyguards. He suffered a concussion.

De facto President Raul Khajimba said the attack was "symptomatic" of lawlessness in the Black Sea province and demanded law enforcement agencies "immediately use all resources to establish order."

Khajimba was elected in August after Aleksandr Ankvab resigned on June 1 following days of political upheaval.

The attack on Butba came on the same day that more than 30,000 people rallied in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, in part to voice concern over a proposed treaty between Moscow and Sukhumi that would strengthen Russia's control over Abkhazia and provide for the creation of joint Russian and Abkhazian military forces.